I'll cast another vote for the HP Touchpad. I have the 32gb with Android and WebOs. I'm posting this on it now. I have no idea how I traveled without one. I watch movies, type reports, book flights and send emails from it. Last night I did my taxes on it. I've used Ipads (1 and 2, not 3), and find the touchpad to have better graphics as well as the flash support that Ios lacks.

Nice choice with the iPad 2. I'm the last person you'd call an apple fanboy, but it is pretty nice. I have a 32GB iPad2 with 3G (although I haven't actually turned it on b/c I have a mifi) and I've found it quite useful. I am intrigued by the TouchPad and Playbook, though. Lately, it seems my kids are using the iPad more than me, so I almost feel like I need (ok - WANT) my own device ;)

Seriously dude... :td:

the first Motorola Xoom is the best value, in my opinion.

It gets all the first Android updates because it was Google's pilot into the tablet market. It has as good, if not better, hardware than the Ipad 2. Scrollable widgets give it a major advantage over the Ipad, you can have a calendar, inbox, facebook widget, etc w/o having to open up apps to see the info. You can run multiple e-reader interfaces, not confined to one program. Chrome Beta syncs to your desktop/laptop browser, allowing all bookmarks and even open pages to sync. Another underrated element, is that if you have a motorola smartphone, you can tether to your phone's data plan when you are out of reach of a wifi network...eliminates the need for a tablet with a data plan...nice little touch by Motorola.

Plus, because the Xoom wasn't very popular initially, you can get them, and their accessories cheap. The Xoom failed because of it's initial pricepoint, and nothing to do with its actual performance. It's still a great tablet even a year after release, and worth the discount you can get it at.

I have both the 32gb hp touch pad and the 16gb black berry playbook.

I haven't got around to cracking the touchpad so my impressions are that the display is nice and the flie transfers are easy, but the apps are lacking, the web browser does not work with some websites, and the video playback is limited without 3rd party software.

The playbook does have a smaller screen which is a positive and and a negative. The app store has an ok selection but is still somewhat lacking. On the positive side the web browser is more robust and the playbook will handle more media files natively.

I find that i like to use the touchpad around the house where i have my desktop computer to fall back to when I want. When i am travelling my playbook always comes with me. I find the smaller size less cumbersome and better suited to spots where a comuter is not always handy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...blet_computers

right now I am aiming at a used iPad 2 with 3g GSM so that it has GPS

I still have a new 32gb Touchpad that I have not opened yet as a back-up

But would like to find a cheap, decent 7 inch 3g GSM and GPS off brand but most seem to just be junk .

Hey I still have my Netbook :)

RB

In which way does the Xoom have better hardware than iPad 2?

Motorola also released Xoom 2 in some countries and released some other tablets, but without much fanfare.

Google has indicated they may sell their own branded tablet this year. Samsung and Asus are targeting tablets for the $250 price point soon, going after the Kindle Fire, which itself should get refreshed for the Holiday season.

But for software and peripheral support, nothing compares to the iPad right now. It wouldn't be surprising if there are already more "retina display" optimized iPad apps. than there are Android apps. designed specifically for tablets.

If you've decided that you truly need a tablet, I don't think you can really go wrong with a Playbook for US$200. The reason I say this is for many cases a powerful and light 12-14" notebook like a Thinkpad X220 (20hrs real-life battery endurance with Wi-Fi on and slice battery equipped... who needs to hunt for a power outlet at the airport?) can double as IFE and you don't give up computing power. But the Playbook is 7" so it's truly compact, has good build quality and it has good hardware specs for its price. The only problem is the relative lack of apps, but at least you can run some Android apps on them now.

Better front facing camera, more RAM, wide-screen dimensions, 4G equipped, microSD slot for expanded memory. Google now owns Motorola's tablet department, so Motorola products will be getting raw versions of Android and not bloatware-laced versions. The xoom is a solid value, and Android's OS is a much better experience for user that has a little bit of tech savviness. I like Apple laptops, but the iOS devices are designed for the average user to complete basic tasks with not a lot of options to personalize the user experience.

Also, don't discount the value of being able to bluetooth tether the xoom to a motorola smart phone, that's a huge cost savings if you are on the move a lot.

I remember the Xoom and Gingerbread had a lot of hype going into CES that year. They even ran Superbowl ads for it.

iPad 2 has better SOC so the UI is smooth and the GPU is more capable.

Widescreen dimensions is a subjective choice. People who want to surf and read prefer 4:3 aspect ratio for portrait mode.

They did retrofit LTE support on the Xoom but those first-gen LTE chips were power hungry. The whole thing didn't have the battery life of iPad 2 despite having inferior SOC -- Tegra 2 has gimped A9 cores and the GPU is way inferior to the SGX 543 MP in the iPad 2.

The expandable microSD is nice, you don't have to overpay for more storage. But the whole product is thicker and heavier so that's the tradeoff.

And Motorola tried to price it higher than the iPad initially. That along with very low software availability doomed the Xoom.

As the owner of several new iPads, I can confirm that this is not the case. I have a hard time finding any good apps that make the screen "pop".

In my very topic-specific details about what makes a value tablet, what did you seem to disagree with?

It's hard to reply otherwise to just a "dude" comment. Sorry.

You can get them cheap right now, accessories too. That's the point. And Android is boat loads better than iOS. I charge my xoom once a week at most.

If you are looking for an e-reader tablet that you can check email on... the kindle fire is pretty good. We have both the ipad 3 and the kindle fire in our house and as far as browsing, resolution and IOS and their is no comparison overall.... the ipad 3 is WAY better. However, it is also 3 times the cost.

If you just want a quality e-reader... I would go with the Kindle fire, but if you want a fully functioning tablet, go ipad.

is the early Xoom only for Verizon (CDMA) or do they make one for GSM (At+T , T-Mobile + the rest of the world)

I looked on Wikipedia and it said they were for Verizon.....But Wiki is not always right

SR

I've been debating for awhile if I need/want a tablet. I'm about to break down and get one, mainly because I have a $300 Amazon gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket. I'm also thinking I should spend a little more time reading (books, not FT :D ) so maybe an e-reader would make that happen.

I'm leaning towards the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 that was just released.

• $250 fits my budget
• Love my Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, would hope this is similar
• Already has Ice Cream Sandwich
• Fits my desire for micro SD and USB.
• I've been looking for better cloud storage, and 50 GB of drobpox free for a year is a nice $99 value while the cloud market matures.

Thinking it could help me watch some of the stuff that I have DVR'd on my HTPC. If I move that storage to a DropBox folder, it would automatically sync to the tablet so I could watch things at lunch.

Doubt I will be able to resist temptation much longer...